The Australian dollar rose today. In fact, it was the strongest among most-traded currencies on the Forex market. The Aussie got a boost from positive macroeconomic data, both domestic and Chinese.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that retail sales climbed by 16.9% in May on a seasonally adjusted basis. Experts were anticipating the same 16.3% jump as in the previous month.
The Australian Industry Group/Housing Industry Association Australian Performance of Construction Index rose from 24.9 in May to 35.5 in June. The report commented on the result:
This indicates business conditions remained negative across the construction industry in June, but the pace of contraction eased from the record lows experienced since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. April 2020 was the lowest result since this series commenced in 2005.
As for data from China, the Caixin China Services PMI rose from 55.0 in May to 58.4 in June instead of falling to 53.8 as experts had predicted. The report added to evidence that the Chinese economy is firmly on a path of recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Next week should be very important for the Australian dollar as the Reserve Bank of Australia will make a monetary policy decision on Tuesday.
AUD/USD rose from from 0.6926 to 0.6940 as of 13:55 GMT today. EUR/AUD fell from 1.6223 to 1.6189. AUD/JPY gained from 74.41 to 74.61.
If you have any questions, comments, or opinions regarding the Australian Dollar, feel free to post them using the commentary form below.
